Shiver [Audiobook] [Unabridged] (Audio Cassette)

Set in pre-Katrina New Orleans a prologue paints a terrifying scene. The place is Our Lady of Virtues Mental Hospital where lovely 35-year-old Faith Chastain is incarcerated. She is told that she's delusional, and now she's beginning to believe that's true as the sisters stare at her with "compassionate, disbelieving eyes......And the doctor, cold, clinical, with the bedside manner of a stone monkey, talked to her as if she were a small, stupid child."

Still, she knows someone is in the room and that he will touch her. She panics and tries to escape as she feels his hands upon her. There is only one avenue to freedom - out the window and to the ground below. It is her birthday, and her young daughter, Abby, has come bringing a gift only to see her mother plummet to her death.

Segue now to 20 years later. Abby and her sister, Zoey, are adults - the same age as when their mother died. Abby has married and divorced. Luke had been a confirmed womanizer who even had an affair with Zoey while engaged to Abby. Thus, the sisters are estranged. Abby lives with her cat, Ansel, and makes her living as a freelance photographer. She is haunted by memories of visits to Our Lady of Virtues and her mother's sudden death.

Detective Reuben Montoyo, whom we met in Hot Blooded and Cold Blooded, appears when he is called to one of the most gruesome crime scenes he has ever encountered. Two people are dead - Luke has been shot and a young woman dressed in a bridal gown lies on top of him. Some would like to consider this a murder/suicide, but Montoyo knows better - and so does all of New Orleans when another double murder scene is found.

The detective's only clues lead him to Abby, Luke's widow, and the now deserted mental hospital. Who or what could be capable of such heinous crimes?

Voice performer Joyce Bean delivers a taut, tension filled reading, especially in the opening scenes where Abby is alone in her isolated home and feels that someone may be watching her.

Author Jackson keeps listeners and readers on the edges of their chairs, totally engrossed by a compelling plot line. She's a pro at blending romance with suspense, which continues to earn fans.

- Gail Cooke

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